400. Zones

78 rules in this chapter

• 400.1 — A zone is a place where objects can be during a game. There are normally seven zones: library, hand, battlefield, gravey…
• 400.2 — Public zones are zones in which all players can see the cards’ faces, except for those cards that some rule or effect sp…
• 400.3 — If an object would go to any library, graveyard, or hand other than its owner’s, it goes to its owner’s corresponding zo…
• 400.4 — Cards with certain card types can’t enter certain zones.
• 400.4a — If an instant or sorcery card would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone.
• 400.4b — If a conspiracy, phenomenon, plane, scheme, or vanguard card would leave the command zone, it remains in the command zon…
• 400.5 — The order of objects in a library, in a graveyard, or on the stack can’t be changed except when effects or rules allow i…
• 400.6 — If an object would move from one zone to another, determine what event is moving the object. If the object is moving to…
• 400.7 — An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous exist…
• 400.7a — Effects from spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities that change the characteristics or controller of a per…
• 400.7b — Effects from static abilities that grant an ability to a permanent spell that functions on the battlefield continue to a…
• 400.7c — Prevention effects that apply to damage from a permanent spell on the stack continue to apply to damage from the permane…
• 400.7d — An ability of a permanent can reference information about the spell that became that permanent as it resolved, including…
• 400.7e — Abilities that trigger when an object moves from one zone to another (for example, “When this Aura is put into a graveya…
• 400.7f — Abilities that trigger when an enchanted permanent leaves the battlefield can find the new object that each Aura enchant…
• 400.7g — If an effect grants a nonland card an ability that allows it to be cast, that ability will continue to apply to the new…
• 400.7h — If an effect allows a nonland card to be cast, other parts of that effect can find the new object that card becomes afte…
• 400.7i — If an effect allows a land card to be played, other parts of that effect can find the new object that land card becomes…
• 400.7j — If an effect causes an object to move to a public zone, other parts of that effect can find that object. If the cost of…
• 400.7k — After resolving a madness triggered ability (see rule 702.35), if the exiled card wasn’t cast and was moved to a public…
• 400.7m — Stickers on an object in a public zone are retained as it moves to another public zone (see rule 123.5). Any effects fro…
• 400.8 — If an object in the exile zone is exiled, it doesn’t change zones, but it becomes a new object that has just been exiled…
• 400.9 — If a face-up object in the command zone is turned face down, it becomes a new object.
• 400.10 — If an object in the command zone is put into the command zone, it doesn’t change zones, but it becomes a new object that…
• 400.11 — An object is outside the game if it isn’t in any of the game’s zones. Outside the game is not a zone.
• 400.11a — Cards in a player’s sideboard are outside the game. See rule 100.4.
• 400.11b — Some effects bring cards into a game from outside the game. Those cards remain in the game until the game ends, their ow…
• 400.11c — Cards outside the game can’t be affected by spells or abilities, except for characteristic-defining abilities printed on…
• 400.12 — Some effects instruct a player to do something to a zone (such as “Shuffle your hand into your library”). That action is…
• 401.1 — When a game begins, each player’s deck becomes their library.
• 401.2 — Each library must be kept in a single face-down pile. Players can’t look at or change the order of cards in a library.
• 401.3 — Any player may count the number of cards remaining in any player’s library at any time.
• 401.4 — If an effect puts two or more cards in a specific position in a library at the same time, the owner of those cards may a…
• 401.5 — Some effects tell a player to play with the top card of their library revealed, or say that a player may look at the top…
• 401.6 — If an effect causes a player to play with the top card of their library revealed, and that particular card stops being r…
• 401.7 — If an effect causes a player to put a card into a library “Nth from the top,” and that library has fewer than N cards in…
• 402.1 — The hand is where a player holds cards that have been drawn. Cards can be put into a player’s hand by other effects as w…
• 402.2 — Each player has a maximum hand size, which is normally seven cards. A player may have any number of cards in their hand,…
• 402.3 — A player may arrange their hand in any convenient fashion and look at it at any time. A player can’t look at the cards i…
• 403.1 — Most of the area between the players represents the battlefield. The battlefield starts out empty. Permanents a player c…
• 403.2 — A spell or ability affects and checks only the battlefield unless it specifically mentions a player or another zone.
• 403.3 — Permanents exist only on the battlefield. Every object on the battlefield is a permanent. See rule 110, “Permanents.”
• 403.4 — Whenever a permanent enters the battlefield, it becomes a new object and has no relationship to any previous permanent r…
• 403.5 — Previously, the battlefield was called the “in-play zone.” Cards that were printed with text that contains the phrases “…
• 404.1 — A player’s graveyard is their discard pile. Any object that’s countered, discarded, destroyed, or sacrificed is put on t…
• 404.2 — Each graveyard is kept in a single face-up pile. A player can examine the cards in any graveyard at any time but normall…
• 404.3 — If an effect or rule puts two or more cards into the same graveyard at the same time, the owner of those cards may arran…
• 405.1 — When a spell is cast, the physical card is put on the stack (see rule 601.2a). When an ability is activated or triggers,…
• 405.2 — The stack keeps track of the order that spells and/or abilities were added to it. Each time an object is put on the stac…
• 405.3 — If an effect puts two or more objects on the stack at the same time, those controlled by the active player are put on lo…
• 405.4 — Each spell has all the characteristics of the card associated with it. Each activated or triggered ability that’s on the…
• 405.5 — When all players pass in succession, the top (last-added) spell or ability on the stack resolves. If the stack is empty…
• 405.6 — Some things that happen during the game don’t use the stack.
• 405.6a — Effects don’t go on the stack; they’re the result of spells and abilities resolving. Effects may create delayed triggere…
• 405.6b — Static abilities continuously generate effects and don’t go on the stack. (See rule 604, “Handling Static Abilities.”) T…
• 405.6c — Mana abilities resolve immediately. If a mana ability both produces mana and has another effect, the mana is produced an…
• 405.6d — Special actions don’t use the stack; they happen immediately. See rule 116, “Special Actions.”
• 405.6e — Turn-based actions don’t use the stack; they happen automatically when certain steps or phases begin. They’re dealt with…
• 405.6f — State-based actions don’t use the stack; they happen automatically when certain conditions are met. See rule 704. They a…
• 405.6g — A player may concede the game at any time. That player leaves the game immediately. See rule 104.3a.
• 405.6h — If a player leaves a multiplayer game, objects may leave the game, cease to exist, change control, or be exiled as a res…
• 406.1 — The exile zone is essentially a holding area for objects. Some spells and abilities exile an object without any way to r…
• 406.2 — To exile an object is to put it into the exile zone from whatever zone it’s currently in. An exiled card is a card that’…
• 406.3 — Exiled cards are, by default, kept face up and may be examined by any player at any time. Cards “exiled face down” can’t…
• 406.3a — A card exiled face down has no characteristics, but the spell or ability that exiled it may allow it to be played from e…
• 406.3b — Some spells and abilities allow a player to cast spells with certain qualities from among face-down cards in exile. A pl…
• 406.4 — Face-down cards in exile should be kept in separate piles based on when they were exiled and how they were exiled. If a…
• 406.5 — Exiled cards that might return to the battlefield or any other zone should be kept in separate piles to keep track of th…
• 406.6 — An object may have one ability printed on it that causes one or more cards to be exiled, and another ability that refers…
• 406.7 — If an object in the exile zone becomes exiled, it doesn’t change zones, but it becomes a new object that has just been e…
• 406.8 — Previously, the exile zone was called the “removed-from-the-game zone.” Cards that were printed with text that “removes…
• 407.1 — Earlier versions of the Magic rules included an ante rule as a way of playing “for keeps.” Playing Magic games for ante…
• 407.2 — When playing for ante, each player puts one random card from their deck into the ante zone after determining which playe…
• 407.3 — A few cards have the text “Remove this card from your deck before playing if you’re not playing for ante.” These are the…
• 407.4 — To ante an object is to put that object into the ante zone from whichever zone it’s currently in. The owner of an object…
• 408.1 — The command zone is a game area reserved for certain specialized objects that have an overarching effect on the game, ye…
• 408.2 — Emblems may be created in the command zone. See rule 114, “Emblems.”
• 408.3 — In the Planechase, Vanguard, Commander, Archenemy, and Conspiracy Draft casual variants, nontraditional Magic cards and/…